The origin of empathy goes back to our very early life when we start motor mimicry as infants. When infants see their mum is crying, they imitate the behaviour by crying or wiping their eyes even if they have no tears! Similarly, when they hear another baby crying, they simply join in to cry as if they don’t yet understand if the crying sound they hear is not their own and simply carry on to imitate it. It is only when they get to about 2.5 years that they start to realise that the misery is not their own.

This non-verbal physical mirroring between a child and parent eventually leads to empathy. This connects the child to his parent and makes him emotionally feel connected. This mimicry requires attention to subtle non-verbal signals and an ability to interpret and respond to them in a similar way.